Takeshi Omura

Takeshi Omura | 大村剛

Ukiha, Fukuoka, Japan

 

Omura’s career started as a disciple of a contemporary sculptor Keisuke Iwata, who would take him on trips abroad and let him visit museums and antique galleries to “cultivate his eyes” for artworks. Then, when the time came for Omura to practice independently, he says “I thought what I wanted to spend my life to create was ceramics to be used in everyday lives, not art pieces.”

Iwata also produced ceramics, so Omura thought he would go the opposite direction in terms of design, to realize his individual style. “My mentor’s signature was organic and asymmetry lines, like free-hand drawing. Thus, I tried to start from geometric clean-cut designs in the beginning.” He explains how you could shape any containers, even plates, as variations of a cylinder.

He brings a cup on the table, which is shaped like a sphere severed in the middle. “When I wanted to make a bowl, this was the way I was designing at first. but then,” he comes back with another one, the latest creation, which was more trapezoidal with a flat bottom. “A noodle maker brought an antique bowl from 14th Century Korea and asked me to recreate it with my own skill and style.” It looked like an almost unremarkable utility piece at first sight, but when he studied closely, he discovered so many ideas and techniques poured into the shape of it. “See the line that goes up from the bottom – it has a curve like a human body. Here you have the waistline that connects to the shoulders and neck.”

Through his almost twenty years of career, he learned that ceramic wares continue to grow over time by the hands of users. He showed us two black cups in comparison. “This was returned to me by a customer who used it for nearly 20 years. I was struck how the glows on the surface were so different. This one shines like lacquer ware.” Inspired, he changed the composition of clays back to that of the early days.

“I think craft creation is a holistic and reciprocal process. You create with other natural factors like fire, plants and clay, where a significant part of it is out of your control. The users and time also play an important role in perfecting them. That’s the beauty of it, isn”t it.”